Today I picked up some Panera on the way home from my internship and shortly after found myself parked in front of the television, watching Lilly King swim her way to gold in the 100-meter breaststroke for Olympic swimming. The first day of the Games, Virginia Thrasher won gold in 10-meter air rifle. Yesterday Katie Ledecky beat her own record to win a the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle swimming event. Simone Biles is storming her way to the top of artistic gymnastics in Rio as I write this.
These young women and I are not that different in a lot of ways. We’re all young Americans raised in suburbia who have just finished our first year of college. We’re all 19-years-old. We all probably drive around with our friends at odd hours listening to terrible music. We all shamelessly sing along to Disney soundtracks. We all have probably fan-girled over One Direction. But the thing about these incredible young women is that in a few weeks they will leave Rio de Janeiro with Olympic medals around their necks as I make my way home from work and probably pick up some more Panera and go home knowing that I will never compete in the Olympics for my country. If you told 7-year-old, avid equestrian little me that I would never compete in the Olympics, she would probably be crushed. But now, 19-year-old me, 3 Summer Olympics later, knows that that is not a bad thing, and that instead of looking at Katie Ledecky and Virginia Thrasher and Simone Biles and Lilly King and begrudging their success, I should look at Katie and Virginia and Simone and Lilly and all the other young, incredible athletes representing their countries proudly and see not someone to be envied but someone to serve as a reminder that there is no limit to what you can achieve when you are passionate, hardworking, and fiercely capable, regardless of your age.
The reality is that the vast majority of the world will never experience the Olympics in person, and even fewer will experience it as a competitor. But almost everybody, young or old, will someday see on television or read about a person competing in the Olympics who has yet to make it around the 20 times but has somehow reached the highest echelons of their chosen passion. It is an affirmation of the incredible power of these youngsters (I call them youngsters with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek) that they garner the respect of the entire world regardless of their age. Their power and ability and dedication are admired and revered regardless of the fact that they won’t be able to go out and have a beer with their friends back home to celebrate their incredible accomplishments. In spite of their age these incredible athletes prove to the world over and over again just how far sheer willpower and commitment can take you.
I will never go to the Olympics. You probably won’t either; the statistics are stacked against us both. But I can get out of bed every morning having seen the living proof of what dedication to your passions can do. Simone Biles can walk into any gymnastics gym in the world and not have to introduce herself because her passion and talent and sheer hard work all speak for themselves. One day I hope to be able to walk into a boardroom and experience the same thing.
